Arrived in Xi'an in another predictable blaze of taxi shaped glory. Sorted our lives out then went to a restaurant called Nyu Fong, where we left our run-down back ally, to emerge 5 metres away in a huge modern square, with the bell and drum tower as centre pieces. We crossed the square past various Starbucks, KFCs, shopping centres, and utilised a very useful underground subway to cross a road to find our restaurant. Very nice and incredibly cheap food, and I do believe we got our old favourite Gun Pao chicken, as well as 6 Yuan beer.
After lunch, Liz and Lydia collapsed for sleep, Charlotte went back book hunting, and us lads grabbed a taxi to the Big Goose Pagoda, which was built in memory of the monk Xuan Zan, on which the famous Chinese story "Journey to the West" and indeed the many incarnations of the Monkey TV show (BBC version circa 1970s). Our lazy taxi driver dropped us in the scorching heat and haze the wrong side of a huge square (there are a lot of squares in china), so we trekked up and around to the front pagoda complex, passed a gaggle of crazy lunatic girls who seemed to think I was famous or the new messiah. The pagoda and the surrounding Da Ci'en Temple was average, little explanation was offered, the pagoda itself was off limits due to earthquake damage, most of the temple looked like it was built recently. Still it was interesting even if our photos were a bit hazy. After dithering a bit, we eventually forced ourselves to grab a taxi to the Shaanxii History Museum, that turned out to be free with a sneaky wave of a British Passport (or any passport). Not the best or most captivating of museums, but we were all shattered and it did have some terracotta warriors, though most were copies (as the British Museum and international community has temporarily stolen a few). The English explanations were a bit sparse compared to the far superior shanghai museum. After spending infinite time trying to a get a taxi, we made it back, we found out Lydia and Liz both woke up at 3ish to feel the room shaking, at which Liz hid under her duvet and Lydia unplugged the tele and leaped for a door frame. Later we discovered that there had been another 6.9 quake in Chengdu, and they must have felt it! I must admit my initial reaction was to claim Lydia was a crazed lunatic, though I do that at most opportunities regardless of situation.
Anyway, I spent 45 minutes rushing around, failing to find the net for Lydia, buying the worst headphones known to man, an SD card and a tuna panini, which I had difficulty procuring in a cold state. By this point I was a bit stroppy with the entire world, so initially I kept quiet when I met John and David to go to a cultural performance in case I was short with anyone, which would be hard for me here in Asia, haw haw (height joke)....
Anyway, off we trotted to the performance, where David abandoned us to see his mum (who is very ill with Parkinson's) and we were seated on a table with a French family, in a hall full of well dressed westerners. So we had a romantic dinner of popcorn and beers and watched the excellent dancing and musical performances that lit up the stage. Highlights included, a quirky man playing some kazoo-like invisible instrument, a percussion dialogue and a story told in silhouetted dance. On the walk back we spotted some excellent night time photo opportunities, including the city wall looking amazing and a huge crowd of people dancing randomly to tribal drums with umbrellas and feather fans. Crazy energy in the air, apparently to do with Harvest. Closing in on our hotel, we chatted with a guy about nothing in particular, while shielding our pockets from his son, took some photos of the drum and bell towers and marvelled at the huge telescopes in the square that for 10 Yuan you could apparently see some resemblance of Jupiter. With the naked eye, we couldn't see 1 star in the sky!
Sleep (mmm long entry)
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